Chapter XXII

And that night, in one of the daintily furnished sitting-rooms of Claridge’s Hotel, before a gaily blazing fire, a man and a woman sat discussing their late mutual adventures over the hunt after the Emperor’s candlesticks. They each had handed over to the other the respective compromising papers, and when that was done each heaved a sigh of relief, and a dainty white hand was stretched out in token of friendship and bond of mutual silence.

And the writer has been told, on the surest authority, that this compact has been most faithfully kept, for Lobkowitz and Mirkovitch never could afterwards induce Iván Volenski to join them in their numberless plots and plans; having handed the fateful papers back safely into the keeping of grim old Mirkovitch, the brotherhood looked to him in vain for help, and he never once joined in their meetings, up the back stairs of the dreary Vienna house; and as for Madame Demidoff, the Russian Government had soon to accept her resignation, in view of her approaching marriage.

Last winter, at the brilliant ball given by the Princess Marïonoff, in her palace at St. Petersburg, certainly the most admired among all the belles was Madame Volenski, _née_ Demidoff.

No one noticed, however, that she and her husband exchanged a meaning smile as the Princess displayed to her guests a pair of the rarest _vieux Vienne_ candlesticks, which it was discreetly whispered had been presented to her by his Eminence the Papal Nuncio himself, on behalf of no less a person than his Catholic and Apostolic Majesty Franz Jozef I.

THE END.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

Add title and author’s name to cover image.

Minor spelling inconsistencies (_e.g._ buttonhole/button-hole, Hotel Imperial/Impérial, etc.) have been preserved.

Alterations to the text:

Formatting: abandon the use of drop-caps.

[Chapter VII]

Change “no doubt, the Papal _Nunico_ was, this was a false move” to _Nuncio_.

[Chapter IX]

“_Ivan_ pondered if he should communicate with her” to _Iván_.

“lady resident in Petersburg, by the Papal _Nunico_, on behalf” to _Nuncio_.

[Chapter XI]

“He swallowed the last vestige of repulsion; he felt for this coarse” delete semicolon.

[Chapter XIV]

“Maria _Stefanovna_ was with him.” to _Stefanowna_.

(“Mirkovitch, have you heard from _Volenksi_?”) to _Volenski_.

[Chapter XX]

(“And fifty,”) change comma to period.

[Chapter XXI]

((letter signature) _Ivan_ Volenski) to _Iván_.

[End of text]